That's overly reductive and I don't care to have a conversation about it because it will provide nothing of value. If you took everything RT/Sputnik reports at face value then sure that's definitely what happened, the shelling started in a vacuum, they just started doing it for no reason at all other than their hate for Russophones, but I think that's a whole lot of cope. I don't support any of the millitary actions Russia or Ukraine has taken including the shelling, but I'm also not naive about what was going on leading up to it. Ideally the USSR would have stayed together to avoid all this mess which I think we both agree on.